In
addition to the obvious problems of PASSPORTS including being a
nuisance to honest travellers, allowing criminals an easy way to
have false credibility, letting governments have unfair control
over people, and opening up a can of worms in the form of people
being held to ransom by anyone keeping hold of the traveller's
passport in some faraway locale, there is now an additional
problem which a variety of authoritarian governments have
introduced. The problem is to do with digital information stored
on a microchip in the passport.

Maybe
some bureaucratic government officials were naive enough to
believe that digitised passports would somehow "improve
security", but their fuhrers in the secret corridors of
power must surely be culpably guilty of knowing that the whole
fiasco is a shocking excuse to apply tyranny to folk.

However,
the problem goes further than the "Big Brother is
Watching You" type of problem. The digital ID passports
are a carte-blanche to criminals to steal your
identity! Here are some of
the many problems:

*
Digital (biometric) passports are expensive. YOU are forced to
pay for it in the form of a stealth tax. Either pay up, or you
are trapped in the country as if it's a jail.

*
Digital passports use a microchip with a huge loop antenna. If
there was even the basic security of having a SWITCH
on it so you could turn it off, it would mean that immigration
officials could view the passport but the crooks would not be
able to see it. Unfortunately, the UK government has not
implemented any form of switch, which means that your passport is
an easy target and can be read by anyone with a gadget. (It has
been suggested that a switch as small as that may be beyond
current technology, but I would suggest that musical christmas
cards may already have a switch solution applicable to passports,
and for credit cards something thin enough and strong enough and
reliable enough should surely be possible?)

*
The security protocol was supposed to be "uncrackable",
but it was cracked within a very short time, and the methods are
now widely known.

*
To read a person's passport at a distance requires a gizmo which
uses basic radio technology and some pieces of computer equipment
which are relatively portable. Update 2011: These are now
available on the black market including online auction sites.

Contrasting
this with a basic old-style passport: For a criminal to make a
copy, they'd have to be adept at pickpocketing to get the
passport off you, then swiftly take a high-res photograph, and
then somehow smuggle it back to you without you knowing. In
contrast, criminals can get a copy of your digital biometric
passport without even getting right-up close to you. It's in
effect "contactless technology"! (Also note that "contactless
technology" on credit cards should
also come with a switch and/or a metal card-case).

All's
not lost, however. There is a way you can defeat the dastardly
plans of crooks hellbent on identity
theft. Even the "kick
me" open invitation represented by the digital passport with
its loop-antenna giving away your info to anyone who wants it,
can the thwarted by some basic shielding technology. Here's my
suggestion:

1.
Get a DVD case, one of those narrow ones that have the latest
movie release in.

2.
Take the DVD out and then cut away the extra bits of plastic, so
as to provide some space that your passport can comfortably fit
into.

3.
Get some thin laminate steel plate like the sort of stuff found
in an iron core transformer. Cut it to the right size with
tinsnips. Make two rectangular pieces to the required size for
the front and back cover, and then insert them into the covers.

So,
there you have it. A passport case that's shielded against
magnetic influences. Also, as well as having a magnetic shielding
effect, it also has some ability to reflect electromagnetic radio
waves, x-rays, and other forms of radiation. Note: This is far
better than just wrapping your passport in aluminium foil.
Remember that you need to shield against magnetic fields as well
as electric fields. (The result is not heavy, as the iron is
quite thin). Also, the DVD case is a sensible size and fits into
your hand luggage easily.

I
expect someone will start manufacturing these passport protective
shield cases. They should sell quite well! Update 2011: These are
started to be available online. Passport cases with EM shielding.

Also,
it may be of interest to a company to put their logo on a DVD
case RDIF shield. A travel company would do well making a steel
shield passport case with their name on the front, and a bank or
financial company would do well with their name on the front. It's
a promotional materials item, as well as a security measure.

Use
a Passport Tin:

If
you can't get such a special paranoid passport-case, and you don't
fancy making one, you could look around the shops and see what
products are available in tins of a relatively flat style. Metal
cigar-cases, plaster/bandage cases, and other thin tins, might
happen to be the right size. Any company manufacturing a product
of about the right size versus a passport might consider making
the tin just exactly the right size and then be able to boast
"free paranoid passport-case with every pack!".

Now
admittedly these cunning ideas to protect your passport might
help to thwart criminals copying your passport, but none of this
stops the evil government from claiming yet another piece of your
soul. To defeat them we'll need something stronger, such as a
concerted effort to overthrow these appalling regimes. In the
meantime, we can still stop crooks from making us all such easy
targets.

Wherever
the government tries to impose the tyranny of Big Brother Identity
Systems on you, they've set
themselves up as The Enemy of The People. If you are thinking
about revolution and overthrowing the government oppression, make
sure that you replace it with something that's genuinely libertarian and which
guarantees personal freedom and privacy rather than repeats the
mistakes of the past. This same issue has been highlighted with
the revolution in
Tunisia and other
overthrown governments.

Small
scale defence: You can protect your passport (against thieves,
etc) by keeping it in a thin tin of the right size, or a steel
laminated DVD-case. If you have a few
contactless technology credit cards, these can
be kept in a cigar tin. If you have a fat wallet full of cards,
you may have to look around to find a tin of the appropriate size.
It's worth hunting around Wilko to find a
tin! The passport defending steel-plated cases are known as
"RFID shields" and are becoming an item in stock at
various gadget shops, even Amazon! Doing a
search for "RFID passport case" comes
up with all sorts of stuff.

The
passport tin shown is a "Craven A" Black Cat cigar tin,
a quality ferromagnetic steel tin, the cigars having been long-ago
smoked by my ancestors. In the modern age, electronic
cigarettes have also become a
freedom issue.

Note
that the VISA card shown is representative not actual. The name
ZYRA is accurate, and is as it appears on the card, as a single name, but the
card number has been faked-up so as to prevent fraud. This and
other paranoid measures are taken in the business of personal
security.

The
money card tin shown as an Airstrip tin which previously
contained plasters which were used for for minor first aid
emergencies.